Moonlight Madness
by cuz-CM's-awesome
Summary: Penelope and Reid decide to have a movie night after they see each other in Barnes and Nobel on their day off.


**Don't Own **

**Please R&R **

**This is my entry for the Criminal Minds Round 3 Dealer's Choice Challenge. **

**My assignment was: Garcia/Reid, a chainsaw, Bodice Ripper Romance novel and a Ratty old bathrobe. **

**This took me quite a long time to figure out what to do but once I started writing I really got into it. **

**Description: Penelope and Reid decide to have a movie night after they see each other in Barnes and Nobel on their day off. **

**I wasn't sure what to rate this so I just decided to put it under M to be safe. **

**Enjoy! **

**...**

It was Saturday morning and Penelope was shopping at the local Barnes and Nobel near her apartment.

Working at the B.A.U. didn't give her much time for pleasure reading but on a good night, if she wasn't exhausted from work, she liked to sit down with a nice book and read a chapter or two before bed.

The night before she had realised that after finishing the last chapter of her book, 'A love for all Seasons', she didn't have another one to start reading.

Penelope liked romance novels, especially Bodice Ripper ones. She liked to imagine she was the beautiful heroine who gets swept off her feet by some gorgeous, hunky man.

She had been in the romance section for about fifteen minutes when she finally found a book that suited her interest. It was called 'Moonlight Madness' by Marilyn Lee and it was about two vampire brothers who had to fight to the death in order to win the love of a maiden named Raven. Not to mention the cover displayed a naked man from the waist up with a beautifully toned body.

Penelope looked around for a little bit longer but in the end decided to go with Moonlight Madness.

Penelope had just finished paying for her book and was heading towards the exit when she saw someone out of the corner of her eye that she thought she knew. She stopped and looked down the aisle to her left to do a double take. She smiled when she realised she had been correct, standing down the aisle with his nose in a book was none other than Spencer Reid.

Since she was in no hurry to get home she decided to go over and say hello. When she got closer to him she looked at the title of the book he was currently buried in.

'Chainsaw Carving: The Art and Craft' she read to herself. 'Hmm well that's interesting' she thought.

"Hey Reid" she said cheerfully startling him.

Once he had gotten over his shock he smiled and looked over at her "Hey Garcia."

"Reading up on a new hobby?" Penelope asked.

Reid looked confused for a second before he looked down at the book he was holding "Oh. Ha no. No I just saw a show last night about wood carving with chainsaws and it caught my interest so I thought since I had a day off I'd come here and find a book about it. I'm guessing you had the same idea" Reid said pointing to her bag.

"Oh…" Penelope began trying not to blush as she thought about the book she had in her bag, it was nothing close to chainsaw carving. "Yeah I realised I didn't have any books to read last night when I was looking for one so yeah I decided to put my day off to good use."

Reid nodded "I'm always a little lost about what I should do with my free time when I get it because it's not a normal occurrence."

Penelope laughed "That's what working in the FBI gets you. So do you have any plans other than researching your interests?"

"No not really" Reid said "I thought I might go to the park to play chess with one of my friends from University this afternoon but I have no plans for later. I guess I'll just have dinner in and read a book. What about you?"

"I need to do some shopping and then tonight I plan to watch Get Smart, I rented it last weekend and still haven't gotten a chance to watch it. I want to watch it tonight so I don't get a late fee because it's due back tomorrow." Penelope said.

"Yeah I wanted to see that, I heard it was a great movie, plus Steve Carell is one of my favourite actors." Reid said.

"Hey" Penelope said excitedly, getting an idea "You should come over and we can watch it together."

"Oh I don't know…" Reid began to say, he didn't want to intrude on her plans.

"Come on" Penelope urged not giving him a chance. "It will be fun, besides it's always more fun to watch a movie with someone rather than by yourself."

"Well…okay" Reid said "I'll bring the popcorn."

"Great!" Penelope said with enthusiasm "It will be so much fun I promise. Why don't you come around six? I'll make dinner and then we can watch the movie."

"Sounds good" Reid agreed.

"Right, I'll see you later then" Penelope said with a smile walking away.

"Yeah later" Reid whispered as she left, he smiled to himself and then went back to his reading.

…

It was five o'clock and Penelope was bustling around her kitchen trying to get dinner ready.

She was excited about the evening she had planned but a little nervous too. She had never spent time alone with Reid before. She had hung out with J.J. and Emily on countless occasions. She had a once a month movie night with Morgan and she had even gone and seen a concert in the park with Rossi but for some reason had never done anything with Reid before. That wasn't saying she didn't like Reid or anything, she did. She considered Reid to be one of her closest friends and they got along really well. She also had to admit that she had a bit of a crush on Reid, he was cute and charming but Penelope had never acted on it.

Now that she thought about it there was really no reason for never spending time with Reid before. Well Penelope was going to put an end to that. Maybe if tonight went well they could start up a regular movie night. She didn't hope for anything other than that because after six years it was obvious Reid didn't think of her that way.

**...**

Reid was nervous, he normally didn't do things like have movie nights with friends.

People never really invited him anywhere; he guessed they just thought he wouldn't enjoy it. Sometimes being a genius had its downfalls. He liked to go out and see a movie just like anyone else did but people didn't see him like that. They saw him as the helpful yet antisocial nerd who sprouted out random and annoying statistics whenever he got the chance.

The team always invited him out when they went to the bar as a group but that was pretty much it. He knew that other people got together from the team but no one ever asked him to join so he just tried to forget about it.

So as he pulled up to Penelope's building he wondered if he would be invited back or if he would make a fool out of himself and be made fun of. Well he doubted Penelope would make fun of him, she was a good friend after all.

He parked his car, took a deep breath, hoped for the best and made his way to her door. The last time he had been there had been two years ago when she had gotten shot. Before he knocked he checked his watch, three minutes to six, it was now or never. He raised his arm and knocked on the door.

**... **

Penelope was just taking her homemade pizza out of the oven when she heard the knock on the door.

She quickly put the pizza on a cooling rack and did a quick sweep of her apartment to make sure everything was in order. Then she hurried to open the door. She smiled brightly at Reid and stepped back to let him in.

Reid smiled back and held up the bag of popcorn he had in his hand "Here's the popcorn, just as I promised."

"Awesome" Penelope said taking it from him "I'll just go put this in the microwave. I was thinking we could eat the pizza as we watched the movie if that's alright with you?"

"Yeah that sounds good" Reid said, he was really down with anything.

"Good" Penelope said "Come into the kitchen and grab a plate, as well as a drink if you want one."

Reid nodded and followed her to the kitchen.

Five minutes later they were both making their way to the couch with their dinner in hand. Penelope had cleared off her coffee table that afternoon so they both placed their plates and glasses down on it.

Penelope was about to sit down when the microwave beeped "Oh the popcorn!" she exclaimed and hurried back into the kitchen, as she went she called over her shoulder "Make yourself comfortable Reid, I'll be right back."

Penelope took the bag of popcorn out of the microwave and poured it into a bowl. She popped a piece into her mouth and smiled, she loved popcorn.

As she walked back into the living room her smile slipped away, she stopped dead in her tracks and a blush rose on her cheeks.

Reid was standing beside the couch, his brow was furrowed and he was starring down at her copy of 'Moonlight Madness' which he held in his hands.

She had forgotten that she had put the book down on the couch after she had read the first chapter earlier that day.

She had intended to put it away but then she got a phone call from her brother and after that she had to start dinner.

She had totally forgotten it was still on the couch. What was Reid going to think of her now? She wondered if he would be disgusted, after all a Romance novel was practically porn without pictures.

Finally looking up Reid noticed that she had come back into the room. "You know..." he began and Penelope prepared for the worse. He would probably tell her that tonight really wasn't the best night for him and then leave. She wondered if she would ever be able to face him again. "In North America, romance novels are the most popular genre in modern literature, comprising almost fifty-five percent of all paperback books sold..."

Penelope almost gawked as Reid went into information mode, he didn't have anything to say about how disturbing it was that Penelope owned such a book? He could have made the situation awkward as hell but he hadn't instead he had started on the fact that romance novels were the most popular genre in modern literature.

Penelope loved when Reid went into his information mode, she knew people especially some of the people on the team thought that he was annoying but Penelope always loved all the information he had. She was always amazed by how much he knew and it was always interesting. She could sit and listen to his fun facts all day.

She smiled and giggled, Reid was just so great.

Reid stopped in the middle of his sentence and frowned as he looked at Penelope "I'm sorry" he practically mumbled "Everyone hates it when I do that. Morgan always says that I'm...its weird."

Penelope practically ran to him when she realized she had hurt his feelings by laughing "I'm not laughing at you Reid, I love all the tidbits of information you always have, and it's always so interesting! I was laughing because it was just like you to go into information mode rather than make the situation awkward for me. I know Morgan would have laughed and made me feel even more embarrassed but you totally just ignored the weirdness of it and made me feel better."

"Really?" Reid asked his voice full of amazement

"Of course" Penelope said "I would never laugh at you."

Then out of nowhere Reid leaned down and captured her lips, it happened so fast Penelope barley saw it coming. His lips were so soft but the kiss was extremely passionate, she had never expected anything like it from the sweet and gentle Reid.

Then it was over, he pulled away quickly and blushed "I'm so sorry, that was out of line" he said in a rush "It's just I've never known anyone who really likes the information I have to offer unless it helps to catch the bad guy and...You're so friendly and sweet and beautiful Penel..." Reid never got to finish his sentence because Penelope had pulled him to her and kissed him again.

It was deep and sensual and amazing, neither wanted to pull away but they were both running out of oxygen. As their lips separated Penelope whispered hoarsely "bedroom."

"Are you sure?" Reid asked.

Penelope nodded and kissed him again. When they broke apart Penelope led him to the bedroom. Their dinner and movie was forgotten.

Reid kissed down Penelope's neck, licking once and a while at certain sensitive spots. Penelope moaned and let him lead her to the bed where he laid her down as he unbuttoned her shirt.

Everything was going so amazingly but Penelope had to stop him. There was something underneath her and it was making it uncomfortable to lie on. With one hand she reached behind her and blushed when she pulled out from under her, her ratty old bathrobe that had seen better days. "Oh that's so embarrassing" she mumbled but soon found Reid's finger pressed against her lips "Shh its fine" he said taking the bathrobe and throwing it to the floor. Then his lips returned to hers and Penelope felt so content with him there.

After that night Penelope never had to read another romance novel, instead she had the real thing.

**...**

**One year later **

Penelope smiled when she walked out of the kitchen and saw Reid sitting on the couch reading a book. They had just moved into their first house and Reid had proposed to her a few weeks before that.

Today was their one year anniversary since they had gotten together and they were going out to a fancy restaurant later on.

'Now's the perfect time' Penelope thought to herself going to the closet in their bedroom she pulled out a nicely wrapped gift. Then she made her way back to the couch and sat down.

"Spence" she said kissing him on the cheek as she sat.

"Yeah Pen" he asked putting his book down.

"Happy anniversary" she said handing him the package.

"What?" he questioned "I thought we were exchanging gifts at the restaurant tonight?"

"We are" she said "this is just something a little extra."

"Okay..." he said and took the gift from her; he tore of the paper and couldn't help but laugh when he saw what was inside. It was an animated bear carved from wood about the size of a garden gnome with a book in its paws that had the title 'Moonlight Madness.'

"Just a little something to remind us of what brought us together" Penelope stated "What do you think?"

"I love it" he said as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her soundly.


End file.
